A Navy official said retiring the Coral Sea would mean longer deployment time for sailors unless Navy commitments are not reduced.

The $295 billion budget proposed by Bush represents a $10 billion decrease from the defense budget submitted by former President Reagan in January but preserves the 3.6 percent military pay raise scheduled for 1990. Nine weapons systems would be eliminated and there would be reduced purchases of 11 others.

Bush initially considered a reduction of $6.3 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 1990 but congressional officials insisted on another cut of $3.7 billion.

The proposed budget now goes to both houses of Congress, where the final vote is not expected for several months.

As part of the $10 billion in cuts, Cheney had been expected to recommend that both LA-class subs scheduled to be purchased in 1990 be deleted from the proposed budget for FY90, which begins Oct. 1.

"When I met with Cheney on Friday the two subs were gone," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., ranking minority member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Cheney said the Enterprise overhaul was safe, but it was going to cost us two subs."

Over the weekend a compromise was evidently struck, but Warner said he didn't know details.

Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division in Groton, Conn., are the only two shipyards capable of bidding on Los Angeles-class sub contracts.

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Cheney said the Navy offered to kill an SSN-21 Seawolf submarine scheduled to be purchased in the early 1990s to save both of the Los Angeles-class subs, known as 688s.

"I rejected that offer on the grounds that the Seawolf was supposed to be an extremely capable submarine, far more capable that the 688," Cheney said. "And instead of taking out one of the 21s, I put that back in the budget. We'll simply stop our buy of 688s."

The Seawolf series of subs is designed as a replacement for the Los Angeles class, an attack submarine that began production in the early 1970s.

Cheney said he did lose one battle in the budget wrangling. He said he recommended that the only intercontinental ballistic missile - ICBM - purchase be 50 MX "Peacekeeper" missiles. The MXs now deployed are in silos but the new ones would be placed on railroad cars so they would be mobile and less vulnerable to enemy missiles.

"The president decided he also wanted to do the small ICBM," so $100 million for the Midgetman, single-warhead missile, was placed back into the budget along with the MXs. Those Midgetman missiles would be launched from trucks to provide mobility and reduce vulnerability.

Cheney said the Army would lose 8,000 active duty personnel in 1990 and 8,300 in 1991, primarily from deactivation of an Army brigade at Fort Carson, Colo., and the elimination of Pershing 2 missile batteries in Europe - a result of the Intermediate Nuclear Force treaty signed with the Soviet Union.

The Navy will lose 11,800 personnel the next two years and the Air Force 3,000 active-duty personnel.

Cheney said that half of the $10 billion in cuts would come from procurement. Accordingly, the administration has recommended cancellation of the Marine's $5.7 billion, V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey transport program and the final $750 million Los Angeles-class submarine.

The F-14D, a new, $50 million version of the F-14 Tomcat fighter for the Navy, was also eliminated. Money was included for the Navy to upgrade its F-14 Tomcats with new engines. Lt. Cmdr. Mike John, a spokesman for the Navy's air force in Norfolk, said the upgraded planes were already being flight tested.

Other cuts or delays recommended by Cheney included:

Delay purchases of the Air Force B-2 strategic bomber for a year, saving $855 million in 1990 and $3.2 billion in 1991.

Terminate the Army's AH-64 helicopters after 1991, bringing the Army's inventory of the twin-engine, tank-killing choppers to 807. Cheney said the Army proposed buying fewer of them in 1990 than planned but "that would have had the effect ... of raising the cost of the helicopters from $12 million per copy to $19 million per copy."

End production of the F-15E Air Force fighter, designed for use deep behind enemy lines. According to Lt. Col. Don Black, a public affairs officer for the Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base, the first 24 of the 200 F-15Es to be built will begin operation this fall at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.